Saturday, September 12, 2009

Want to spoke pot in a federal park?

Want to spoke pot in a federal park? Endorse Obama online, in print and on TV, viciously and personally attack his opponent, and do it early, and the feds won't prosecute!

"A reluctant federal judge in Massachusetts has dropped a marijuana possession charge against author and blogger Andrew Sullivan. U.S. Magistrate Robert Collins dismissed a violation notice against the British citizen on Friday after prosecutors said they wanted to keep his record clean because he has applied for an unspecified immigration status. Possession of small amounts of marijuana is legal in Massachusetts, but Sullivan was found with the drug in a federal park. On Thursday, the judge said dropping the charge violates a key legal principal of treating everyone equally. He said the law required him to drop the charge but "does not require the court to believe that the end result is a just one."

"Andrew M. Sullivan, the British author, editor, and political commentator, is one of the best-known figures in the new-media elite, and his blog, The Daily Dish, is among the most popular on the Web. But a federal judge says Sullivan did not deserve preferential treatment from prosecutors who dropped a marijuana possession charge after the journalist was recently caught smoking a joint on a federally owned beach on Cape Cod. In a strongly worded memorandum issued Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings said the decision by Acting US Attorney Michael K. Loucks to dismiss a federal misdemeanor possession charge against Sullivan flouted a "cardinal principle of our legal system'' - that all persons stand equal before the law. Three other defendants charged with the same offense had to appear before Collings the same day as Sullivan, the judge noted. But Sullivan's case was the only one prosecutors did not pursue, out of concern that the $125 fine carried by the relatively minor offense could derail his US immigration application. "It is quite apparent that Mr. Sullivan is being treated differently from others who have been charged with the same crime in similar circumstances,'' Collings wrote in the 11-page memorandum, adding that prosecutors' rationale for the dismissal was inadequate. Collings added with obvious irritation that he had no power to order prosecutors to pursue the case, and granted their motion to dismiss it. The fact that he did, however, "does not require the Court to believe that the end result is a just one,'' he wrote."

Sullivan, a regular pro Obama pundit on Chris Matthews' show, says he smokes for "medicinal purposes". So, why was he smoking in the park? And, how can he look himself in the mirror, knowing others are being prosecuted for what his connections are letting him get away with? A man of principal would take his punishment, not pull strings. This is political corruption and cronyism, plain and simple.

By the way - - they're prosecuting 3 others, but not him, so it won't interfere with his "immigration status"? In other words, he's supposed to get kicked out of the country for what he did, so they're dropping the charges. Anyone else would be on the next plane home.

For the record, I think pot should be legal. But, until it is legal, rich influential people who are buddies with the president shouldn't get to do what poor people, non white people and nobodies go to jail for doing.

About Me

Lifelong Democrat; Former president, Broward County, Florida Young Democrats; Former member, Broward County, Florida Democratic Executive Committee; Former city commissioner, City of Cooper City, Florida; Graduate, The University of Florida; Practicing attorney, Miami, Florida; Member, The Florida Bar; Member, North American Snowsports Journalists Association; Broward County Young Democrats' Trailblazer of the Year, 1994; Broward County Young Democrats' Young Democrat of the Year, 1996.